Climbing in Red Rocks after heavy rain can permanently damage the rock! MORE INFO >>>

The sandstone in Red Rocks is fragile and is very easily damaged when it is wet. Holds rip off and climbs have been and will continue to be permanently damaged due to climbers not respecting this phenomenon. After a heavy storm the rock will remain wet, sometimes for several days. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN RED ROCKS during or after rain. A good rule of thumb is that if the ground near your climb is at all damp (and not powdery dry sand), then do not climb. There are many alternatives (limestone, granite, basalt, and plastic) nearby.

This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund,
and Mountain Project.You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates.

Description

Although it is entirely possible to link pitches or climb in other areas of the cliff (sometimes confusing, esp. down low and right above the Texas Tower), this is what we did:

P1: ~100ft right of Epinephrine and ~80' left of a chimney corner scramble and climb up some face climbing (5.8) and left to a ledge, 100'.

P2: trend right from the belay and follow crack system to the left of Texas Hold'em, belay at a small stance above a scrub oak in the crack. 5.7, 80'

P3: Traverse right on edges to the bolt on pitch 2 of Texas Hold'em, 5.9, passing a two bolt belay continue up and right through the 5.6 corner to another 2 bolt anchor at the right side of a ledge.

P4: Follow the corner above to another bolter belay, 5.7, 60'P5: climb the small right facing dihedral above to another bolted belay 5.10, 60'

P6: step down and follow 4 bolts up and right (5.11) to a small right facing dihedral (5.9), 60'

P7: Climb the large right facing dihedral with the large crack to a ledge 5.10 or face climb (no gear) around the large bit in the crack on edges to the right, another short bit of 5.10- crack/corner gets you to the top of the Texas Tower. 160' Rappel or down climb to another ledge with a bolted belay on the left (5.7) 20'Note: directly up from this belay is the line of Texas Hold'em

P8: Trend up and left past a fixed nut to a bolted belay 5.9+/10- 70'

P9: Traverse left and down, passing ~ 5 bolts to a bolted belay at a small ledge stance 5.10- 60'

P10: From where P9 meets the shallow dihedral (just before down climbing to the belay) continue straight up through the shallow dihedral passing ~7 _JU_ quarter inch bolts 5.9+

P11: Traverse right clipping a quarter inch button head, make a couple thin face moves (5.10+/11-) up and right around a roof into a dihedral with fragile/chossy rock. Continue up the dihedral (5.9) to a quarter inch button head and RP nest belay, 90'

P12: Continue up the dihedral, then trend right pulling over some small roofs on suspect patina crimps (PG), work around a bulge (5.10) and onto a right trending ramp. Belay here (100') or continue ~30' up the ramp to a bolted belay.

P13: Continue up the ramp (easy/moderate fifth class) to a ledge system below a large cleft.Note we did a small pitch here through the trees to move the belay up to the base of the next pitch.

P14: Follow the chimney/crack system on the right of the cleft to small ledges in the chimney, 5.10-, 80'

P15: Continue up this crack system (5.10-) for ~30' them move right through a small corner onto a ledge, 70'

We did this route a couple of days ago by starting on Epinephrine so that we could climb the first half of the wall in the shade (early summer beta). This allowed us to make a lot of progress while waiting for the rest of the route to go in the shade.

Once on Lone Star proper (pitch 11 in the description, as 1-10 is Yellow Rose) here is some beta to help if you use a 70meter rope.

Link p11-12, with good use of runnering you can make it all the way to the bolted anchor. (BTW, you can back up the buttonhead with an awesome green alien)(230')

p13 climb all the way to the pedestal inside the chimney with the double cracks (220')

Link p14, 15, 16 all the way to the top of the last perched block (220 -230')

p17 climb past the tree to the nice ledge (I tried to link into 18, but had impossible drag due to the tree, and had to downclimb back to the ledge) (80')

Link 18, 19 go from the diagonal crack all the way to the base of p20. We discovered that p19 is more like 130', not the 70' described so 18 and 19 together is like 230', just barely doable with a 70m (230+')

You could link 20 and 21 with some simul climbing (we pitched these out, but the terrain the leader and follower are on is easy, but fragile, exercise good judgement if you wish to simul part of these.) (p20 230', p21 short and easy)

This allowed us to cut 11 short pitches down to 7 massive pitches, but could cut it to 6 if you simul the end.

It was really fun to take off and try to climb 70m pitches, I recommend this.

An interesting route- if I were to do it again, I'd start via Texas Hold 'Em, avoiding the initial pitch of Lone Star, which definitely detracted from the day (poor rock quality and fair to marginal gear the whole way- glad i wasnt on the sharp end!). The upper pitches above the ramp, though were incredible- well worth doing.

Darren's beta was perfect and a 70m line is mandatory anyway for the final 5.9 pitch. Even if you take a 60m line, link the first two pitches and build a hanging belay on the ramp if necessary- the RP nest belay is a joke and should be avoided.

Sandbagged for the grade. Texas hold'em last pitch was hard for 10d and the 10a and 10b pitches on lonestar felt much harder. Maybe i was having a bad day but I TR sent the 11c final pitch on Cloud Tower the next day but could not come close to even attempting to sen the 10d Texaa Hold'em pitch. Lonestar was a great linkup.

The bolt protecting the crux has been replaced. Gear wise, we got by with bringing one old #4 camalot, rather than a 4 and 5. On the last pitch watch out for loose rock from people topping out epinephrine. My partner almost got clocked by a big one.

If approaching via Yellow Rose as did the first ascentionists (moulin's beta above mixes up some different routes and sounds like it might be faster and more fun on the first few pitches), here's a little beta on that route: the lower pitches are grovelly and not very frequently climbed, the bolts have been partially replaced (and retroed in some spots) as of this posting, and the route definitely doesn't start getting fun until atop the huge gully ledge. The bolts we replaced that were likely part of Rosholt's efforts to get a couple of the neighboring 12s in place were in very funky shape, most likely due to galvanic corrosion. Heads up to those whipping on these relics from the 90s. When the route is fully replaced, I will post up.